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Celebrities Share With PARADE: 'The Book That Changed My Life'

We asked these 18 celebrities about the book that changed their lives. Check out how their picks have influenced them.

Katie CouricHost of the syndicated talk show Katie, premiering in September

"Katharine Graham’s Personal History is the story of a woman I deeply admire. It takes you through the ebbs and flows of her personal and professional life."

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Hugh Jackman

Star of the upcoming film Les Misérables

"When I was 18, I read Hermann Hesse's novel Siddhartha, and that had a big effect on me. I make myself read it every decade because I get a different perspective every time. It's a beautiful book."

2 of 18

Donald Trump

Chairman and president of the Trump Organization and star of NBC's The Celebrity Apprentice

"I read Norman Vincent Peale's The Power of Positive Thinking when I was quite young, and it left a great impression on me. I agree that a positive outlook and approach to life and business can reap great results."

3 of 18

Piers Morgan

Host of CNN's Piers Morgan Tonight

"An Evil Cradling by Brian Keenan. He was kidnapped in Beirut and wrote about living in horrible tiny, hot, grubby cells for nearly five years, chained to a radiator. While I was reading it, I thought, 'I'm never going to complain about anything ever again.' I still complain, but I try to temper it."

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Miranda Lambert

Country music star

"I loved The Hunger Games. It's universal, makes you think, and keeps you on your toes!"

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Aaron Sorkin

Creator of HBO's The Newsroom, premiering June 24

"The Catcher in the Rye, but my runnerup is The Bonfire of the Vanities. [It is] this perfect snapshot of a moment in time. Tom Wolfe has a way of taking characters that have nothing to do with each other and making them crash into each other. That's something I've always wanted to try."

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Alex Trebek

Host of Jeopardy!

"I read The Moonstone by Wilkie Collins when I was about 12 and just couldn't devour the pages fast enough. I was entranced by this mystery novel. That might be what inspired my love of reading."

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Karina Smirnoff

Professional dancer on ABC's Dancing With the Stars

"My favorite book of all time is Margaret Mitchell's Gone With the Wind. I read it when I was a kid—the first two times in Russian, then in English. When you're a kid growing up in the former Soviet Union, you have this idea of America—this dream—and then you read a book [like this] and you feel as though you're learning about the core of this country. And Rhett Butler … well, you know!

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Matthew Morrison

Star of FOX's Glee

"It was probably The Little Prince. I always had this fascination with James Dean, and that was his favorite book."

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Leslie Stahl

Correspondent on the CBS newsmagazine 60 minutes

"I don't think one book did change my life, but what comes to mind is a book I read when I was very young: War and Peace. I wouldn't put it down, and my father, who always said, 'Read, read, read,' got very angry with me for being so buried in the book. It changed me in a way. I realized that I loved, loved, loved to read. I also realized I loved historical fiction. I understood great writing—reading someone who understood human nature, particularly women's human nature. I slowed down to read it; I relished it. Maybe, because my father was mad at me, that had something to do with it too."

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Glenn Close

Star of the FX show Damages

"I just read a book that I found incredibly inspiring called The Center Cannot Hold by Elyn Saks. I co-founded an organization called “Bring Change To Mind” to stop of the stigma and discrimination surrounding mental illness, and Elyn is on our advisory counsel. She’s lived her whole life with schizophrenia and could have been [away] in an institution, but she never gave in. She wrote this amazing book about her journey. I found it very moving"

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Meredith Vieira

Contributor to Dateline NBC, correspondent on Rock Center with Brian Williams, and host of Who Wants to Be a Millionaire

"To Kill a Mockingbird is such a moving story about inequity and a family fighting back. It really is beautiful. In fact, when Demi Moore named her child Scout, I said, 'I love that!' Also, as a little girl, it was Eloise. She was everything that most heroines were not. She wasn't pretty, she was a little devil, she was a renegade. I grew up in Rhode Island and she lived in the Plaza, so I used to fantasize that I was Eloise."

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Barbara Walters

Host of ABC's The View and contributor to ABC News

"When I was very young, it was The Little Prince. What it means is that someone you love—and someone who loves you—is special. I loved The Little Prince and the rose he loved the most. Also, I was brilliant, so I was 6 months old when I read it."

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Martha Stewart

Founder of Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia

"I love Sir Humphry Repton's books on landscape design—books like that mean a lot to me and the work I do."

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Matt Czuchry

Star of CBS's The Good Wife

"Tuesday's With Morrie is a book that really made me appreciate my life more. It made me question things and really inspired me."

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Nick Cannon

Host of NBC's America's Got Talent

"I was a huge fan of Shel Silverstein's books as a kid. I've got them all—everything from The Giving Tree to Falling Up to Where the Sidewalk Ends. I'm looking forward to reading them to my kids one day."

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Kate Walsh

Star of ABC's Private Practice

"One writer I loved as a child was John Steinbeck. He wrote about California's coastline and coastal towns, and that was where I went with my parents as a kid. The characters he wrote about were so flawed and colorful and fantastic—that's why I became an actor. I think my first [Steinbeck novel] was Cannery Row."

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Chace Crawford

Star of the CW's Gossip Girl

"Where the Red Fern Grows. I read it four times when I was younger. [For] a kid, that book was awesome."